T - Editorial Style Guide

Feb 17 2010

T

Takeaway: One word

Takeover: As noun but to take over

Take-off: With hyphen

Tai chi: Not t’ai chi. And taekwondo

Taliban: Note spelling

Targeted: One t.

But it is a tired phrase best avoided

Tarmac: Is a tradename so needs a cap T

Television: TV is acceptable but telly is not

Third World: Note caps

That: This word is so often completely unnecessary and superfluous. Kill them off unless it is crucial to making the sentence work. E.g. Leave it out of ‘He said that the council was talking nonsense’, and make it ‘He said the council was talking nonsense’.

Time: 4pm not 4 o’clock. Try to avoid using ‘from’ unless times are written out in a proper sentence. Examples:

The meeting takes place on Monday, January 1, 10-11am.

The meeting takes place on Monday, January 1, 10am-4pm.

Mr Robinson works from 11am to 4pm.

Police said the break-in happened between 11am and 4pm.

Do not use 12am or 12pm – use noon and midnight.

Titles: Titles of council committees, officials, company employees etc should be lower case e.g. planning committee, Jim Jones, chief executive, Eva Young, sales director.

Titles of books/films/newspapers: Should be written thus – Great Expectations, Die Hard, The Times. They are not italicised or placed in quote marks, except in body text on lifestyle pages, in which case they should be italicised.

Tonnes: Is a metric measure (1,000kg), tons is an imperial measure (2,240lb) Use whichever is correct

Tube: Cap when referring to London Underground

Turn-off: But turnout, turnaround

Tradenames: Avoid. They include: Biro, Dictaphone, Elastoplast, Fibreglass, Formica, Hoover, Optic, Photostat, Polaroid, Sellotape, Tipp-Ex, Thermos. Any use of a trade name that implies blame can be dangerous.

Transatlantic: Note one word

T-shirt: It’s T-shirt, not tee-shirt or t-shirt

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